Anyone else fallen out of love with it?

[cpjw]

Fascinating to see the replies on this thread.

From my point of view, I love the resorts, love the parks, and would happily go 3 or 4 times a year if I could. The issue I have is that the costs are getting ridiculous - to the point that I'm having to consider whether I can continue with it. On-site dining was always part of the holiday and experience for me. We used to use DDP until that got too expensive to justify and then, more recently, TIW but even with that the cost of eating last year was horrendous. The price of the park tickets - whilst I do think are good value - are a massive outlay and extra costs seem to be creeping in for everything.

It also seems to be getting harder every year to book the resort stays that we want.

[annabella]

Hubby really has fallen out with the magic and I hate to say it but I see his point. What will the free dining if you book a hotel room and no significant discount on food for DVC owners. I think we will only have our contract another few years before selling

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Moogles Smith

Ours arrived yesterday ...

See more...

Just to say our Disneyfiles arrived today - 11 days after yours!

[TinkTatoo]

We're in the, owned for a while with older kids (18 & 20) group, we've been going every year (sometimes twice) for the past 15 years. We rented out most of our points last year and went on a Disney Magic cruise around Norway and Iceland which we loved but I did miss WDW so the kids and I managed a 2 week trip which was great. This year we're doing a 10 night Med cruise on the Disney Magic and it will be the first year we haven't gone to Florida.

We're planning to go back next summer and with all the changes, we're looking forward to it as there will be quite a lot of new stuff to see. For us, it still feels special, we don't attack the parks commando style, we tend to dip in and out just picking one or two rides or attractions that we want to see and spend the rest of our time just chilling at the resort. Even a trip to Target is something we enjoy doing. We also tend to spend some time in Vero Beach which breaks up the trip. We rarely eat on site so 6 month in advance ADR's aren't an issue for us.

I've no plans to sell up, the kids have already said that they'd take over our DVC and use it themselves if we didn't want to go any more. So if we had another year when we didn't go I'd just rent out the points which would more than cover dues and have money left over.

[vhm672]

I'm at Saratoga Springs at the moment fitting in a sneaky break before a work conference in Florida. I will also be back in October for my 40th. I still have the love, no two trips are the same. I don't however expect perfection or magic which I think only leads to disappointment.

Yes it is more expensive due to both prices and exchange rate but dining on Disney has never been a big part of my trips. I am happy with quick service or doing some meals in the villa.

[Bella1]

We are also in the "older kids" category and now holiday very differently from how we used to.

I went for a long weekend in January whilst DH was on a conference, we are doing 3 nights DVC next week and then moving to OKW with free DDP as the offer was too good to miss, we will upgrade the tickets to AP and we will be back on Boxing Day staying at BLT. We are doing Run Disney events on both of our next trips.

However our breaks are now shorter and beside the DDP this time we very rarely eat onsite now as the prices are ridiculous. We do visit the parks but usually only for a few hours at a time and just enjoy our favourites.

We like our DVC and love the freedom that it gives us and it also allows us to let our kids have good accommodation when they travel with their friends.

We won't visit again in 2018 after our New Year break as it is quite points heavy and hopefully having a break for a while will keep the magic fresh enough.

[Twentyyears]

Very interesting thread.
Been visiting Florida and the States annually or biannual since 1990 and mostly stayed off site (a few values resorts for our son)
We often bought annual passes and stayed on 192.
In 2013 we had an endowment out and at around 49/50yrs of age bought into DVC having fallen back in love.
We had experienced the "fall out of love" and then did road trips and visited the other parts of America we wanted before we bought in- you can see in our signature, including one long west coast and NP road trip so our son saw some other parts of the States.
As my husband had a health scare a couple of years back we know his health could deteriorate so we knew this would be somewhere warm, English speaking and could be relaxing at"home" with good food (you just have to go to the right restaurants we think and we love off site too)
As our son can inherit and we have a small contract so this doesn't limit us. We are using the cash/free dining to extend out stays or double up/trade in with our annual passes so we can remain flexible.
We also fell in love with cruising and would like to return to the Caribbean and are doing Alaska with Disney next year- combining with Aluani and Canada on a three week bucket list trip.
We are only now at a stage in our lives, new job, better money, that we can do the really expensive trips and afford to do Disney luxury with our DVC and those other trips.
We see our DVC a bit like Mr Tom Morrow, for us a as we get older we want relaxation, maybe add on a bit later when we don't want the far out trips, and want the familiar. We also hope to help out our son and his partner/ family one day so we can still holiday as a grown up family occasionally as we all get older.
But I can really appreciate how the OP feels, you can fall out of love for a while and the exchange rate has really taken it's toll. We are doing the free dining and DVC split stay this year for trip one as it makes so much sense and a good deal with four adults in a one bed at OKW.
I think you have to be canny and decide how it works for you, or not. It took us too long to be able to buy, and we only have 120 points, so we will never sell but if we had huge contracts I can see the thought process and the consideration.
A lot to consider.

[Twentyyears]

Just adding to that if you don't have DVC annuals the 14 day hopper in Virgin's preview brochure for 2018 was £414 😱😱😱😱
My husband and I were not going to get a pass after our May 2018 trip as we were getting three trips into one year from this year's AP year and doing Alaska next year, it was potentially not worth having one.
However it may be better to renew on DVC if we go once at least it is cheaper, oh my!
More consideration for the OP thinking of to sell.

[Lisaw1971]

Been to Florida twice & loved it, 1st trip over Xmas as dvc - absolutely hated it! No free ddp soneverything cost a bomb, I felt I was treated as 2nd class citizen in my home resort because I was dvc (poly) I don't knownjuatbwasnt as fab as I thought it would be!

Not going this year!

Aiming to have some enthusiasm for 2018 - hopefully we'll have a better exchange rate by then too!

[Mrs Valentine]

I think there is something to 'going to often' but I also feel Disney has changed. You used to feel really valued and feel like the service was second to none. It was just a holiday like no one else could provide. I don't feel like that any more. Although I still love it, I feel Disney has slightly lost its way. Constantly building new accommodation for the last few years has been awful, you don't go away to be on a building site. OK, now they are doing stuff now, but its all happening at once. What with DTD, AK and HS all having boards up at the same time... horrid. I know they are in business and its all about making money, but to be honest before you weren't quite aware of it. Now, you really have the feeling that they want your money and don't care about anything else.